A food blog of original, kitchen tested recipes with easy to follow instructions.

Eat!

Eating is a necessity. However, we choose what to eat. The choices we make reveal a great deal about us. The food you eat can tell quite a bit about your heritage, your family, your fears, your sense of adventure, your attitude toward yourself and others, and a myriad of other personal tidbits to anyone paying attention. Everything about eating is a glimpse into your soul.

I hope to reveal a little bit about myself to you through my food. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy eating. I find pleasure in bringing pleasure to others. I hope that by sharing my recipes I bring you a little bit of joy.

Cook my food. Feed it to the people you love.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

‘Au gratin’ usually refers to a cooking method that creates
a crispy crust on top of the dish.It
can also refer to the dish itself.The
most familiar is probably Potatoes au Gratin, which is layers of potatoes,
cheese, and cream baked until the potatoes are soft and a crunchy crust has
formed on top.Thinking about it, I
suppose that Baked Macaroni & Cheese is technically ‘au gratin’ as it is
baked and forms a crust.But really you
can cook almost any vegetable this way.

I decided to try Butternut Squash au Gratin because butternut
squash are in season and crispy, crunchy, crust,-what’s not to love? Acorn
squash, buttercup squash, or even pumpkin could be used with this recipe.Just adjust the cooking times.I used rosemary because I have a rosemary
bush (small tree) outside my back door.You could substitute thyme, tarragon, or savory for the rosemary. You could also use onion instead of shallot.

However, if you decide to follow this recipe exactly, you
will not be disappointed. All of my recipes are original and I have cooked all
of them from scratch, following only my self-taught knowledge of cooking
techniques and my taste buds. Therefore, most of the time the first and often
the second try is if not inedible then in need of tweaking. My husband has eaten many (many, many) of my
mistakes.This recipe was delicious the
first time.My grandmother used to say, “It
ain’t braggin’ if you can back it up.”Allow
me to humbly say, “Yum.”

Butternut Squash Gratin

Servings: 6-8

Time:Prep: 15 minutes;
Cook: 1 hour

Hardware: Cutting board and large knife, measuring cups, a
veggie peeler, a large spoon, a large pot, a colander, a large skillet that can
be used on the stove top and in the oven (cast iron works great), a wooden
spoon

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash (about 3 pounds)

4 cups broth (you can use vegetable or chicken)

3 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 shallot (not more than ¼ cup)

3 cloves garlic

3 tablespoons butter

¼ + ¼ cup bread crumbs

¼ + ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup Half & Half

Salt & Pepper

Put the broth on to boil.

Cut about ½ inch off both ends of the squash.Peel it.Being very careful, cut the squash in half.Using the large spoon remove the squash’s seeds.Cut the squash into 1 inch cubes.

Put the squash cubes and 2 sprigs of the rosemary in the boiling broth. Simmer until the squash is easily pierced with a knife, but isn’t falling apart. You want it to still be a little firm. This will take about 15-20 minutes. Drain the squash, reserving ⅔ cup of the liquid.Discard the boiled rosemary.

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Dice the shallot and garlic.Remove the remaining rosemary from the 3rd sprig and mince.

Melt the butter in the skillet over medium heat.Add the shallot, garlic, and minced rosemary.Sauté, stirring often, until the shallot is translucent, about 4 minutes.

Add the squash to the skillet with the shallots.Lightly salt and generously pepper the squash.Turn the heat to medium high and add the reserved liquid.Gently simmer until the liquid is reduced by half, about 5-7 minutes, stirring just enough to keep everything from sticking.

Stir ¼ cup of the crumbs and ¼ cup of the cheese into the squash.Pour the Half & Half over the squash.Top with the remaining crumbs and cheese. Salt & Pepper again.

Bake for 25-35 minutes or until the top of the squash has formed a golden brown, crunchy crust. You can turn on the broiler for 2-3 minutes to really create a crispy crust, but be careful and keep a watchful eye on your dish as there is a fine line between toasty goodness and charred awfulness.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

My husband and I live alone. No children by choice, so we can wait
'til the last minute to plan our holiday meals and they can be as elaborate or
as simple as we want them to be. I know not everyone is in that situation.
So it may be too late to add Beef Wellington to your Christmas menu. Or
maybe you have 20 people to feed and it would be cost prohibitive. Or
maybe you have children who are not interested in rare steak and mushroom paste.

However, you
should find the perfect time and audience to serve Beef Wellington. Beef Wellington is traditionally made of filet mignon coated in duxelles, topped with goose liver pâté, and wrapped in puff pastry. It is
beautiful and delicious. It isn’t really that hard to make if you use
pre-made puff pastry and make the duxelles (DEWk-sell) ahead of time. You can find foie gras
at specialty stores, but let’s be real. My sister made Wellington for me
once and used the Boursin cheese. Same texture and no tortured geese. I
also like the taste better.

Like I said,
the duxelles can be made ahead and refrigerated for up
to 4 days or frozen for 2 months. Duxelles is a classic French preparation
of mushrooms, in which you cook the mushrooms into a paste. Doing this serves
two purposes. The first purpose is the process really intensifies
the flavor. The second purpose is it cooks them down.
Mushrooms are full of liquid and if you didn't evaporate some of it then
they would release the liquid into your dish and ruin it. I used porcini
and oyster mushrooms. You can use button, but the flavor is a little
bland. Mix it up.

If this recipe makes too much duxelles you can use
the leftovers in a million ways. Here are but a few: Add a tablespoon to
gravy; add a tablespoon to scrambled eggs or into the filling of an omelet;
stir them into pizza sauce; top your favorite fish with them, add some Herbes
de Provence, some butter, wrap the fish in foil and bake; stir a tablespoon or two into a
quiche; roll out the other sheet of puff pastry, top with duxelles, caramelized
onion, your favorite herbs, and shredded Gruyere cheese, fold just the edges of
the pastry over and bake.

Read over the recipe
before you start. My recipes tend to have more steps than others do
because I am not making assumptions about your experience as a cook. I
want everyone to be able to have fun in the kitchen and not be intimidated by
needlessly vague or hard to follow directions. Beef Wellington looks
elaborate, but really anyone can do this.

I served the Beef
Wellington with mashed potatoes and a wonderful sauce. To make the sauce
I simmered 1 cup of port wine, I cup of beef broth, 1 tablespoon of prepared
horseradish, and 1 tablespoon of course ground mustard until it was reduced by
half and then strained it through a fine sieve.

Beef Wellington-Easier than it looksI like mine rare

The Duxelles Hardware: Food processor, a rubber
spatula, measuring spoons and cups, a bowl, a skillet, a wooden spoon, a
container with a lid

Ingredients:

Course ground kosher salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

16 ounces of mushrooms (use a variety)

1 shallot (¼ cup)

2 cloves garlic

½ teaspoon dried tarragon

¼ cup of your favorite port (you can substitute beef
stock)

Place the shallot and the garlic in the food processor
and pulse until they are very fine. Scrape out the processor bowl and set them aside. Put the mushrooms in the processor and pulse until
they are the size of very small (think aquarium) pebbles.

Melt the butter and oil in the skillet
over low heat.

Add the
shallots mixture and sauté, stirring often, until they are translucent,
(about 4 minutes)

Use the port
to deglaze the pan. Add the tarragon, a pinch of salt, and a few
grinds of pepper. Turn the heat down and simmer, stirring enough to
keep the mushrooms from sticking, and cook until the liquid is absorbed
and the mushrooms are practically a paste. (5-10 minutes)

Season each
side of the filets with fresh cracked pepper and coarse salt.

Heat the
olive oil as hot as your pan and stove can. Sear the filets for one
minute per side. You want just the outside to be seared and the
inside still very raw.

Place the
filets on the plate. Top the filets with the duxelles. Press
down. Then top the duxelles with the Boursin. Both the
mushrooms and the cheese are the consistency of clay so this is easy to do
with your fingers.

Wrap the
plate in plastic wrap and stick in the freezer (or fridge if you prefer your steak medium to well.) Trust me. This
is necessary to keep from overcooking the steak you skipped a car payment
to buy. Remove after 20 minutes. If the pastry still hasn’t
thawed, place the steaks in the fridge until you need them.

Preheat the
oven to 420°F. Cover the baking sheet in parchment paper. Beat the
egg and water in a small bowl with a fork.

Sprinkle a
flat surface with flour. Unfold the pastry sheet onto the surface.
Roll the pastry sheet into a rectangle large enough to wrap both
steaks. Cut it in half.

Working with
one steak, bush the pastry sheet with the egg mixture. Place the
steak cheese side down onto the pastry. Fold the pastry over the beef and
tuck the ends as if you were wrapping a package. Keep all the seams on the
top side as you are working. Use the egg wash to seal. Make
sure there are no openings. Flip the Wellington over and place it
seam side down (cheese side up)
onto the baking sheet. Repeat with the second steak.

Brush the pastry with the rest of the egg wash.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Soup is so easy.It can be served for lunch or dinner.It is usually easy to make.You can throw in whatever you want, so it is
a good way to use leftovers.And it
tastes better the next day.

To make this soup you
can use leftover chicken, rotisserie chicken, canned chicken (don’t please), or
roast your own.I roasted chicken breast
and flavored it heavily with garlic and thyme.I used baby potatoes so that I wouldn’t have to peel them.I just washed and halved them. You can add in chopped carrots also, most people do, but my husband doesn’t like them. If
the chowder isn’t thick enough for you, you can stir in instant potato flakes or
mash a few of the potatoes in the chowder.Another way to thicken soup is to stir equal parts corn starch and water
in a small bowl (a few tablespoons) and stir it into the boiling broth.

After you perfect
this recipe, you can experiment and make it your own.Add green peppers and seeded jalapeños with
the veggies, omit the thyme and add in cumin, smoked paprika, and a little chili powder to create a
Tex-Mex flavor.If you omit the
chicken, use veggie stock, and add more corn this can be made for vegetarians. You can
also replace the chicken with turkey or even shrimp.Have fun.

Servings: 6-8

Time:Prep: 10 minutes;
Cook: 30-40 minutes

Hardware:Measuring
spoons and cups, a cutting board and knives, A Dutch oven or a soup pot, a can
opener, a wooden spoon, a ladle, serving bowls

Search This Blog

Followers

About Me

I am a teacher living in Florida. I love teaching and I also love to cook. This blog combines those two loves. My recipes are very detailed because I am not making any assumptions about my readers' cooking experience. I want my blog to encourage even new cooks to be brave in the kitchen.